Last summer, I talked to my wise friend Pierre. He is very good with Tarot cards and he always makes me laugh when I want to give in to despair. ‘I feel so heavy,’ I said. ‘Why do I feel so heavy?’

‘Because you never set anything down, Lena. You just keep picking up more things. You need to put a few things down.’

It has taken me a few months to understand what he really meant. I began to observe myself. Almost every time I stopped worrying about something for a minute, the peaceful silence made me paranoid: weren’t there more things to worry about? Wasn’t there some piece of news, a thought, or an uncertainty I could reach for to trash my momentary sense of joy?

I’m sure you played this game a few times, too. And truly, I don’t have any grand fix. But as December begins, I’d like to invite you to make a short list: Write down a few things you are prepared to set down. What are you lugging around with you, secretly, stubbornly? Is it a bag of old guilt? A suitcase full of convictions that leave you parched and isolated?

It you’re about sixty-five percent ready to set something down, that’s good enough. You might even include some stuff you’re not prepared to set down at all, and see how it feels.

Here’s my list, for today:

The unanswered messages on my phone and in my e-mail inbox, and the haunting fear of being seen as careless

The feeling that I always need to know how something will turn out, and if it fails, it’s all on me

The belief that I’m only a good person if I bring the same values to every conversation and express them throughout. This one is closely related to the belief that I must never contradict myself, even when doing so actually preserves connection with other people instead of severing it

There is no wrong way to do this list. And once you’re done, you may absolutely burn it on your terrace or balcony and offer it to the gods of your understanding (trees and stones are very much included here). Because what’s the point of setting down a burden if we don’t place that burden at the feet of a greater power?

The Full Moon in Gemini that happens between Thursday and Friday this week, December 4 and 5, is a great moment to introduce more lightness and to use our words. So, if you’d like to try the experiment above, any night from now until Sunday is good.

Next week on Tuesday, December 9, Mars in Sagittarius will square Saturn in Pisces. According to one of my favourite astrologers, Austin Coppock, this aspect often creates situations where we need to move something heavy (Saturn) really fast (Mars). Like a sudden deadline you had not planned for, or a flu that announces itself on the exact day when you really need to show up for a job. Difficult Mars-Saturn aspects always stress-test our systems and structures, both physical and psychological. Great timing, I know.

All this to say: Keep your schedule a little open next week, if you can. Don’t try to do too much, because the ‘too much’ will appear all by itself. Don’t overpromise, underpromise.

I have been writing so much about tenderness this year, and I will continue to do so in 2026. I have a hunch that I will need some strength for the year to come. I think you will, too. And the evidence of my own life has mostly shown me that my strength has not come from endlessly worrying. It has come from joy. And the joy has come from allowing myself to set my burdens down. To let something be.

As we meet this difficult Mars-Saturn weather next week, one of the best things you can do is setting down a stone or two. Hand them over. Keep your hands free for whatever life may throw at you, be it gold dust, a bit of dirt, or both.